


The red string of temporality

by followbutterfly



Category: Tenet (2020)
Genre: Bittersweet, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Gap Filler, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:55:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26304496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/followbutterfly/pseuds/followbutterfly
Summary: “What’s this?”He reached out to touch a little red string with a small totem attached to it. His face brightened up like a five years old boy as if he found the most amusing trick that he could pull.Set in the future, after/before the movie, Neil found a trinket with a red string in his partner's bag.
Relationships: Neil/The Protagonist (Tenet)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 164





	The red string of temporality

**Author's Note:**

> The Russian translated version is [here](https://ficbook.net/readfic/9883113)

“What’s this?”

  
He reached out to touch a little red string with a small totem attached to it. His face brightened up like a five years old boy as if he found the most amusing trick that he could pull.

  
He coughed, tried to stammer and looked embarrassed since the younger man found the trinket in his bag. He had been a fine pretender after all.

  
“A souvenir I’ve got from Japan ages ago.”

“And it’s in your bag the whole time?” the man’s smile stretched wider into a smirk. He grabbed the trinket and threw himself onto the bed. The underwear was clinging on the waist, the hair was dampened from the shower but still disheveled and turning soft, the eyes were gleaming with mischief. “Never picked you as a delicate one.”

“I can be delicate.”

Neil snickered before putting one hand around him. He kissed his shoulder and buried his nose to smell the aftershave. “No, you’re dexterous. That’s very different concept, especially when it comes to the business under the sheets,” the hand was dancing around his arm, while the nose was still nuzzling in the crook of his neck.

“What’s wrong with me being delicate? Why do you keep denying it?”

He tried to change the subject, making Neil laugh and soon would forget about the trinket. Forget about what would happen.

  
“You don’t have to be delicate, old man. Just be you.”

“Is that it?”

Neil hummed, caressing his arms and waist. They both were exhausted from the mission, so neither of them initiated something heated rather than kisses and a brief making out. Still, Neil stayed with him in the room and kept touching him like a starving man.

“You’re enough.” The husky voice whispered into his ears and made him shiver. “Then tell me what’s about this little souvenir and I would leave you be.”

“Are you jealous?” The last attempt to change the subject, of course. But who cares if he was the desperate man trying to save his partner from signing up a suicide mission assigned by himself?

Neil’s smiled lingered; he didn’t answer right away. The younger man leaned towards his body and started kissing him in every corner his mouth could touch.

The time was moving slowly, but his heart was beating fast. The striking contrast between longing for this feeling to last forever and the desperation of a drowning man knowing damn well they had reached the ending point.

He clutched Neil’s hand to stop his action. The younger man looked at him, waiting.

“From an old friend. The red string represents the undying fate attached the two souls together, regardless of time or places. It’s also believed to be a good luck charm, so-” he shrugged.

Neil laughed, “and you believe in fate?”

“I believe in what’s happened.” He said, “what’s happened, happened.”

“Simply put,” Neil tilted his head, “you believe in the reality.”

The words sucked out the air from his lungs. He tried to remain calm, while the heart was thudding. Neil was staring at him, searching for something more than the words echoed his past and Neil’s future. To erase all the tension, he diverted the younger man’s attention by kissing him senseless. It was taken the man by surprise but he eventually complied and kissed back.

They ended up together in the bed, sated and so worn out. Neil was snoring softly beside him.

The clock was ticking towards the end.

The next few weeks, they had been entangled in the very prevalent mission after the death of a world’s famous scientist. They sought for the answers and the algorithm but he knew too well they wouldn't be found in the present.

  
Ives came to their room out of the blue and spread out the hologram of the time inversion to find a pin point to stop the end of the world. They had tracked down the historical event to identify the plutonium-241. The speculations were around Stalask-12 and a Russian man named Andrei Sator was missing from the radioactive site. Neil was strangely quiet while he was listening to the agent. He sat still on the sofa, arms crossed, as if in the deep thought. That was the moment he realized he couldn’t postpone it any longer.

The clock was ticking.

“I’ll do it.” Neil’s voice cut in Ives’s.

The other man turned to Neil and raised his eyebrows. “We agreed that it should be-”

“No, it can’t.” Neil said, looking right at him, “he was in that timeline, which means he’s going to see himself looking young and beautiful before he’s going to be self-annihilated. It should be me.”

Ives turned to him. The questions were obviously written on his face. They’d known Neil was always the rookie, playing outside the field, thinking outside the box kind of guy, yet this time he was taking too far.

But there was no going back.

“Let him go.”

The look on Neil’s face was unreadable, placid and very still like a sea before the storm broke. Then he quickly returned to his usual demeanor. “Great! can’t wait to see the old man in the past.” Neil smiled at him, but it didn’t quite reach the eyes. Lying is the standard operational procedure after all.

They were on the bed that night. Neil knew he wasn’t sleeping. The hand was caressing his shoulder, seeking comfort and something more. “Hey, can I have that?”

“What?”

“the trinket you’ve got from the old friend. The one with a red string.”

He could hear his breath stopped and his heart skipped a beat. There was a lump in his throat as he tried to swallow the bitterness, “of course, if you’d like.”

Neil smiled as he leaned towards him, buried his face between his neck and his shoulder and sighed. “Guess I have to pretend I haven’t met you. That part is less exciting though.”

He chuckled and reached out to his hair, “at least you’ll find me,”

“Yes, I’ll always find you.”

The clock stopped.


End file.
